Men's Lacrosse

NYIT 21, C.W. Post

Brookville, NY -- Dominating play in the first and fourth quarters helped the NYIT men's lacrosse team advance to the NCAA Division II National Championship game with a 21-9 victory over the C.W. Post Pioneers in the national semifinals here this afternoon.

The victory now pits the Bears (9-2) against Limestone College next week's title game, after the Saints defeated #1 LeMoyne, 9-8, in the other Division II semifinal. The NYIT-Limestone clash will also be a rematch of both the 2002 and 2003 Finals that saw each team win one title.

The Bears' Joe Vasold set the tone for the contest by winning the opening faceoff and scoring just seven seconds into the game. By the end of the first stanza, NYIT held a 5-1 advantage, then put the game away in the fourth quarter with six unanswered goals.

Vasold's lightning-quick goal was followed with goals by Keith Henderson and Joe Droge that came seven seconds apart to boost the Bear lead to 3-0 with 11:20 to play in the first quarter. After Henderson scored again three minutes later, neither team found the net until Jeremy Jablonski scored C.W. Post's first goal with 46 seconds left in the quarter. However, NYIT's Paul Montali scored in the waning seconds to give the Bears the 5-1 lead.

NYIT continued to keep up the pressure and blunted each attempt by the Pioneers (9-5) to regain the momentum by matching each of their second quarter goals, twice scoring within a 30-second span to take an 11-3 halftime lead.

C.W. Post was able to chip away at their deficit after intermission, slicing the margin to five goals at 13-8 with 5:38 to go in the third. Consecutive scores from Tim Paulson, Reggie Thearle and Mike Dimler helped get the Pioneers back into the game, but the Bears scored two of the final three goals of the quarter, including their final tally with just three seconds remaining for a 15-9 lead.

The final quarter saw NYIT put the game away with four goals in a three-minute span, including two by Droge to give him five on the afternoon.

In addition to Droge's game-high five goals and three assists, the Bears were aided by Tom Zummo's four goals and three assists and Joe Gabrysiak's three goals and three assists. Henderson and Montali also picked up hat tricks on the afternoon. For Post, Jablonski, Dimler and Paulson each scored twice.